Delfeayo Marsalis Releases New Album ‘Crescent City Jewels’

The iconic drummer Max Roach, in conversation with future Grammy winner and NEA Jazz Master Delfeayo Marsalis, observed that only celebrities tend to be held up as heroes to admire. “He said, ‘The media always focuses on the greatness of athletes,’” Marsalis recalls. “’But when I look around in my community, I see greatness everywhere. I see greatness in the postman who shows up every day to deliver the mail, and in the teacher who is serious about teaching these kids.’ He made me think about the difference between the real world that we live in and our perception of it.”

Marsalis set out to celebrate the undersung heroes in his own hometown with Crescent City Jewels, the latest album with his Uptown Jazz Orchestra. Due out August 30, 2024 on the Troubadour Jass label, Crescent City Jewels brings together a host of veteran and rising New Orleans musicians for a high-spirited big band session, supplemented by a number of guest stars, including big brother Branford Marsalis for a pair of jaw-dropping sax showcases, Rebirth Brass Band co-founder and Big Easy ambassador Kermit Ruffins, “Piano Prince of New Orleans” Davell Crawford, drummer extraordinaire Herlin Riley – and heart attack survivor – trombonist Maurice “Miracle Meaux” Trosclair.

Crescent City Jewels is like a Gratitude Journal in song, a rollicking collection that expresses the bandleader’s appreciation for the good things in life at a time when so much attention seems to focus on doom and gloom. “What the jazz community needs right now are bands that can bring joy and optimism,” Marsalis says. “We not only need it for the audiences, but other bands need to hear it. There are so many bands that play what they consider to be ‘modern’ music which may not be the most uplifting experience for the audience.” I feel very fortunate that I have a band, especially coming out of New Orleans, that can bring that emotion and joy.”

New Orleans, of course, is a place where virtuosity is always deployed with a celebratory spirit. The city is one place in which jazz has never lost its connection to the community and social life. Marsalis spotlights the UJO’s ability to breathe exuberant life into almost any song by gathering material from a startling variety of sources – jazz standards, infectious new originals, classics by legendary figures like Thelonious Monk and Joe Henderson, and a few musical jewels from the inexhaustible Crescent City songbook. He was also guided by the desire to feature the band’s soulful longtime singer, Tonya Boyd-Cannon.

A Top 20 finalist on Season 8 of The Voice, Boyd-Cannon’s roots are planted more in the R&B tradition than in jazz – which Marsalis insists is an asset, not a liability. “Because we’re not a jazz band!” he declares. “We’re more like a New Orleans R&B band playing with jazz sensibilities. When you look at Fats Domino’s bands, those guys were playing for real, man. Guys like [saxophonist] Lee Allen was a jazz specialist who found his main voice through funky r & B. The New Orleans music tradition is great!”

Arriving in the midst of the dog days of summer, Crescent City Jewels kicks off with the Marsalis original “Sidewalk Sizzle,” an irresistible tune built on a classic groove reminiscent of The Funky Meters. Supplying a bass line wide as the Mississippi is Chris Severin, a student and frequent collaborator of the bandleader’s late father Ellis Marsalis. “He was my first bass teacher when I was about 8 years old,” Marsalis recalls with a chuckle. “Well, he helped me decide I didn’t want to play bass, actually.”

Severin also contributes the mesmerizing “High Cotton,” a solo introduction to another ode to the season, the Gershwins’ “Summertime.” UJO’s take on the oft-recorded classic gives it a sweltering, humidity-drenched spin highlighted by Boyd-Cannon’s sultry vocal. The singer turns on the brassy charm for the Harold Arlen/Truman Capote-penned “A Sleepin’ Bee” and the winsome “Exactly Like You.” Monk’s “’’Round Midnight” becomes a twilight-hued ballad feature, the breathtaking range and power of her voice. She channels the church by way of Aretha Franklin for Marsalis’ funky “Valley of Prayers” and the Billy Taylor song “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free.”

The latter is one instance where the upbeat mood of the album becomes a bit more overcast, though Marsalis’ choice of protest music is one with a healthy dose of optimism. “Not everything is peaches and cream,” he admits. “We’re not trying to pretend it is. What makes Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman so unique and special is that they really capture the world as it is, while other musicians might capture the world as they would like it to be. Monk captured both elements, the triumphs and the adversity, the fantasy and the real life, simultaneously.”

That duality is also present in Joe Henderson’s bracing “Inner Urge,” here laying the foundation for the fire-breathing tenor of Branford Marsalis. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the eldest Marsalis brother graces the Latin-tinged “El Ultimo Café” with a graceful soprano turn. Delfeayo, whose supple trombone also dances over the swaying tune, discovered the Julio Sosa song while performing with the Tango Jazz Quartet in Buenos Aires last year. He wrote “Basie Moods” in tribute to the bandleader who “led the hardest swinging band in the history of the world for 50 years.” Of course, you don’t entrust Basie-level swing to just anyone, so the mighty Herlin Riley takes over the drum chair for the occasion.

No one embodies the spirit of New Orleans quite like Kermit Ruffins, who leads the band in a raucous rendition of the Jessie Hill classic “Ooh Poo Pah Doo.” Another local anthem, Spencer Williams’ “Basin Street Blues” invites pianist and singer Davell Crawford and trombone great Maurice Trosclair into the fold. A high school classmate of Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Trosclair earned his “Miracle Meaux” sobriquet after surviving a Sudden Cardiac Arrest in an elevator en route to a UJO performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2017. “The elevator opened up and there just happened to be two nurses working on that floor,” Marsalis marvels. I called him in the hospital and said, ‘You didn’t have to go through all of that. You could have just told me you didn’t want to go play the gig, Meaux.’”

After a short peek behind the scenes at the band’s jocular interactions, “Li’l Liza Jane” brings the album to a rambunctious conclusion, rounding out a diverse and effervescent program. “One of our goals is to show the breadth and the dynamic possibilities of New Orleans music,” Marsalis says. “Our philosophy is to take the important ingredients from past generations and use them in the gumbo that we’re creating today.”

Delfeayo Marsalis
An acclaimed, Grammy-winning producer, trombonist, composer, and NEA Jazz Master, Delfeayo Marsalis has also dedicated his prolific career to promoting music theatre and education. Marsalis has toured internationally with music legends such as Ray Charles, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Slide Hampton, as well as leading his own groups. At the age of 17, Marsalis began his career as a producer and has to date produced over 120 recordings, garnering one Grammy award and several nominations. In 2008, he formed the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, a highly entertaining ensemble that focuses on maintaining important jazz traditions such as riff playing, New Orleans polyphony and spontaneous arrangements. Delfeayo also formed the Uptown Music Theatre in 2000, a non-profit organization that empowers youth through musical theatre training. He has written sixteen musicals to date and composed over 100 songs that help introduce kids to jazz through musical theatre. He has reached over 10,000 students nationally with his Swinging with the Cool School jazz workshops.

Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra – Crescent City Jewels
Troubadour Jass Records – TJR-008292024
Recorded Nov. 16-17, 2023 & May 30-31, 2024
Release date August 30, 2024

Photo Credits: Eric Waters and Girard Mouton

Source: Ann Braithwaite

Click here to purchase Cresecent City Jewels